Sleeping porch vs. Bedroom
 

Alot of people feel strongly about sleeping porches. From what I hear, at many schools they are unheard of, wheras at OSU they are the norm.

Do you think it helps or hurts your brotherhood/sisterhood one way or the other?

Sleeping porches are almost all confined to the mid-west, and date from a time when Greeks provided the best student housing available. I suppose whether they're attractive or not these days depends on what the alternative is on your campus. Dpesn't have much to do with brotherhood or sisterhood. They come from a time when women couldn't be upstairs in fraternity houses, nor men in sorority houses. My guess is that today everyone wants some privacy.

Can someone please inform me of what a sleeping porch is? It sounds like it might be a barrack.

Traditionally, sleeping porches are large rooms in the house, usually on the ends, where beds are stacked and only sleeping takes place. Individual members also have their own "study rooms" in the house - usually two to a room - which are outfitted for studying and storing of some personal effects. Where they exist, they are found in both sorority and fraternity houses. They're usually found in those huge, traditional houses in the mid-west.

Most have done away wiht the sleeping porches, however -- or at least anyone who could raise some money from the alums for renovations.

So where does the sex happen?

Sleeping porches are in the majority at Idaho and Washington State University. Very few houses do not have "the porch", and the windows are kept open at all times. Some houses have more than one porch, and electric blankets and down comforters are the norm. All the sororities have rules about boys on the porch, and at least one fraternity has a no women on the porch or upstairs after 2 am rule. I think that is the one fraternity who locks their doors at night too.

As far as where people hook up and shack up, it happens on the porch, but most people move off campus into apartments by their junior year if not earlier.

Which explains why population in the mid-west is decreasing...

How does this comment relate to the examples given which are from Oregon, Idaho, and Washington - none of which are in the midwest?

It's OK Firehouse - I got the joke.;)

Why are windows kept open at all times?

To let the germs out :)

It's all a matter of what you're used to. If you attend a school that has chapters with sleeping porches, they don't seem all that strange. If you don't, they may seem odd.

Many chapters at Iowa State have sleeping porches (or cold airs as we called them) and most people who lived in chapters with them absolutely loved them. They do take some getting used to, but they're really not that bad.

As far as having an affect on brotherhood/sisterhood, unless someone is mad they have to do wake-ups or can't shack, I don't know why it would be an issue.

Ew can you imagine sleeping in a room with a bunch of sisters come, say, November or December when everyone gets colds and the flu? It's bad enough even with the windows open, but if there wasn't any circulation... gross.

Can you imagine what would happen if a sister got mono??